Hit the road for a "One-Tank Trip" around Southern Ontario.
Adventures worth the drive from the syndicated newspaper/web column by Jim Fox

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Saturday, May 19, 2018

Trent-Severn Waterway is a summer playground and engineering marvel across central Ontario

One-Tank Trip for
May 19/18

(c) By Jim Fox

Ranking up there
with the top canals in the world, the Trent-Severn Waterway is an engineering
marvel but not just a pretty face for tourism.

It’s getting busy
on the waterway as the navigation season opens this weekend and continues through
Thanksgiving, connecting the playgrounds of Lake Ontario and Lake Huron.

Just like a super
highway, the waterway is in need of regular maintenance.

The federal
government is investing more than $600 million to repair, rehabilitate or
replace the network of locks and bridges across the waterway, much of it from
this year to 2020.

Cruising the waterway

Whether by car,
motorcycle, bicycle or boat, a great day trip or longer is cruising the
waterway.

Parks Canada says most
lock stations are located next to or a short distance from a major highway or
byway and roadside “beaver signs” steer you to the attractions.

“Since there is so
much to experience at each lock – whether it is boat watching, picnicking or
relaxing in a park-like setting – taking excursions to see and enjoy the locks
by land has become a favourite pastime for many,” the agency says.

Start out on the Upper
Big Chute Road winding 42 kilometres through rock bluffs and pines of the
Canadian Shield that inspired the Group of Seven painters.

At the site, the Severn
River has carved a narrow chute out of solid granite and the railway portages
boats in a 100-tonne open carriage.

There’s an observation
deck to watch workers scramble up and down ladders to operate the slings and carriage.

It lifts boats
almost 18 metres over a ridge between the Severn River and Gloucester Pool on
Georgian Bay and slips them gently back into the water on the other side.

Stay on to barbecue,
picnic or swap tales from the road.

- Another marvel is
the Peterborough Lift Lock National Historic Site on the Otonabee River section
of the Trent Canal.

Canoes and kayaks are
jammed into the Peterborough Lift Lock for a National Canoe Day event.

As the
highest lift lock in the world, it opened to great fanfare in 1904 and is powered
by gravity, lifting boats 19.8 metres.

The lock operates
on a balance system, with water let into the upper chamber and then a
connecting valve is opened and the heavier chamber automatically descends,
forcing up the lower chamber to start a new cycle.